Remarks of the President in Nationwide Radio-TV Address, 26 July 1963

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 26, 1963 OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY THE WHITE HOUSE REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT IN NATIONWIDE RADIO-TV ADDRESS (AS ACTUALLY DELIVERED) Good evening, my fellow citizens: I speak to you tonight in a spirit of hope. Eighteen years ago the advent of nuclear weapons changed the course of the world as well as the war. Since that time, all man- kind has been struggling to escape from the darkening pro- spect of mass destruction on earth. Inan age when both sides have come to possess enough nuclear power to destroy the human race several times over, the world of communism and the world of free choice have been caught up in a vicious circle of conflicting ideology and interest. Each increase of tension has produced an increase of arms; each increase of arms has produced an increase of tension. In these years, the United States and the Soviet Union have frequently communicated suspicion and warnings to each other, but very rarely hope. Our representatives have met at the summit and at the brink; they have met in Wash- ington and in Moscow; in Geneva and at the United Nations. But too often these meetings have produced only darkness, discord, or disillusion. Yesterday a shaft of light cut into the darkness. Negotiations were concluded in Moscow on a treaty to ban all nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water. For the first time, an agreement has been reached on bringing the forces of nuclear estruction under international control -- a goal first sought in 1946 when Bernard Baruch presented a comprehensive control plan to the United Nations, That plan, and many subsequent disarnament plans, large and small, have all been blocked by those opposed to international inspection. A ban on nuclear tests, however, requires on-the-spot inspection only for undergronnd tests. This Nation now possesses a variety of techniques to detect the nuclear tests of other nations which are conducted in the air or under water. For such tests produce unmistakable signs which our modern instruments can pick up. The treaty initialed yesterday, threefore, is a limited treaty which permits continued underground testing and prohibits only those tests that we ourselves can police. It requires no control posts, no on-site inspection, no international body. We should also understand that itha other limits as well. Any nation which signs the treaty will have an opportunity to withdraw if it finds that extraordinary events related to the subject matter of the treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests; and no nation's right of self-defense will in any way be impaired. Nor does this MORE